The auction of 3G technology has now been scheduled in April 2014 and five licenses (3 3G license and 2 4G license) will be auctioned in the bid. In the country, five mobile phone service providers are operating and out of them 4 have the fairly good chances of winning any of the 5 licenses. Everybody is eying on the auction which is in the next month to see who wins the 3G/4G license and becomes the first to offer the services in Pakistan. There are also fairly great chances of foreign companies to take part in the bid. So, not only the people are excited about the arrival of new technology in the country but the mobile phone companies are too seem very happy and some have already set their equipment and infrastructure in accordance with the 3G requirement to run the services smoothly on their network.
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With the launch of 3G/4G technology in the country, people will enjoy a very high speed internet on their handsets. Though, there are five mobile phone operators in Pakistan but only 2 to 3 will be able to win the 3G including new foreign entrant and only those operators will be considered for the 4G bid who win the 3G license.
Winning a 3G license at least will be enough for a company to earn a hefty amount of profit for the next 4-5 years while winning the 4G license will allow the company to build its supremacy in the industry for 10-15 years. Furthermore, 4G winning companies will also experience the boost in their market share and revenues after every 3-4 years.
With 37 million customers, Mobilink is currently leading the market and has the fairly good chances of winning the 3G bid. On the other hand, Telenor has just replaced its network infrastructure with 3G ready network and well prepared to win the bid.
 Ufone, the subsidiary owned by Etisalat UAE, is eager to boost up its share in the market by grabbing 3G/4G technology. Unlike other mobile phone operators, Ufone has the advantage of being the subsidiary of PTCL who has very wide broadband infrastructure in all over the country. Zong on the other hand is also waiting for the auction to spend billions to win the 3G/4G technology.
In order to get the 3G spectrum, these operators will not miss the opportunity and go at any level to win the bid. The auction of 3G/4G technology will also help the economy to boost as Government of Pakistan is expected to generator over Rs. 1000 billion from it.
Warid has very minimal chances of winning the 3G license but the chances of new entrant are present who may acquire the company and take part in the bid.
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At this point, it is not possible to say exactly who will win the next generation license. So, we will have to wait till the end of April to see how wins.
